Archive for the ‘anthony rendon’ tag

For years I’ve collected links and lists of Nationals top 10 prospect lists into a text file, just growing it chronologically year after year. I noticed somewhat recently that in the Nats Big Board there are a few tabs with titles like “2013 Prospect Rankings” that had some but not all the rankings data that I’ve collected. Plus there’s no 2014 or 2015 tabs of this information.

So, I kind of became obsessed with translating all the information I had in text format to a spreadsheet. Today I’ve uploaded this spreadsheet for your viewing pleasure. I’ve created a “Link” along the right-hand side of this blog and also offer the below Google XLS:

I’ve only included what I deem to be “professional pundits” rankings. That is to say, I have not included my own, or the rankings of other Nats bloggers. I’ve also excluded auto-generated rankings (like at Scouting Book), rankings driven by projection systems (Zips, Pecota, etc), and rankings driven by or for Fantasy purposes.

The default XLS in Google is sorted by the Fangraphs recent ranking, then alphabetically by last name after that.

The color schemes on the spreadsheet: Orange means that the player hadn’t been acquired and/or drafted yet. Red means that player has either left the organization (by release, trade, etc) or has “graduated” and is no longer a candidate for these lists. Therefore a “white” or non-colored tab for recent lists should mean the player is still in our system, ranked or not. Corrections welcome.

In the 2nd “pundits” tab you can see pundit by pundit whose lists i’ve used and (in yellow highlighting) see some of the lists I wouldn’t mind finding and including. In particular, if anyone has the BA handbooks from previous years, I’d love a scan of the Nats top 30 pages.

One of the really interesting things I see in this data is the discrepant rankings from pundit to pundit by player; having all this data side by side lets you see (for example) that Keith Law really likes Joe Ross and John Sickels doesn’t rate Reynaldo Lopez nearly as highly as some of his counterparts.

The data is pretty solid to 2010; if anyone has older links i’ll take them and include them. I also can carve off future time to do the google research but for now I’ve devoted enough time to this little project

There are some weird discrepancies in the data as far as I can tell:

I have not done the “not yet signed” logic for all the IFA candidates, mostly because there’s some discrepancies in some of the IFA signing dates. To wit; Anderson Franco is listed on the big board as a 2014 IFA signing, but he appeared in BA Handbook’s 2014 rankings for the team. That BA Handbook is written mostly in December; how could Franco be ranked if he wasn’t even signed yet? Do all IFAs sign on the same July time-frame? Can a D.R. prospect sign the moment he turns 16, even if its outside the signing window?

Players like Aaron Barrett and Taylor Jordan ended up on pundit ranking lists after exhausting their eligibility; that’s what numbers in red blocks means.

mlb.com lists in particular are not published and set in stone; their system constantly adjusts the lists to account for player movement, so some of the older MLB list links may not match what’s in the xls.

The canonical history of Nats prospects ranked #1 on any list: Lucas Giolito, Brian Goodwin, Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper (who never was NOT ranked #1 by any pundit), Stephen Strasburg (also never not ranked #1 in his brief stay on these lists in 2010), Jordan Zimmermann and lastly Chris Marrero, ranked #1 in the BA Nov 2007 ranking I somehow found.

Q: Do you see Trea Turner as a future leadoff hitter for the Nationals? If so, when? Ian Desmond has one year left on his contract, so I have to think the front office is counting on his rising through the Minor Leagues quickly like Anthony Rendon.

A: Yes, I can see Trea Turner as a lead-off hitter in the majors. Blazing speed (some scouts have rated his speed at 80 on the 20-80 scale … which is a real rarity), excellent bat skills during his 3 years at NC State (a career college slash line of .342/.429/.507 playing in the nation’s toughest baseball conference), and in short sample sizes in the pros he’s got good OBP numbers. Everything you want in a lead-off guy. In college he had power (8 homers in 54 games his junior year playing with BBCOR bat, 2nd in the ACC); that’s a nice combination if it translates to the pros.

The question I have about Turner is whether he can stick at short. Or, more to the point, if he’ll be a good enough shortstop to appease the defensive-minded Mike Rizzo. All the scouting reports I’ve seen say the same thing: good fielder, great range … and an iffy arm that may push him to second. Well, you have to think Rizzo acquired a guy like Turner specifically because he thinks Turner *can* stick at short, and is a ready-made replacement for Desmond. Otherwise; why get him? Its a heck of a lot easier to find a second baseman than a shortstop in this league (current issues replacing Danny Espinosa notwithstanding).

Can Turner be a fast riser? Well, he’s not nearly as accomplished a college player as Anthony Rendon (who, lets not forget, was College Player of the year as a sophomore). Rendon ended his first pro season in AA and hit his way to the majors permanently by June of the following year. That’s a pretty amazing trajectory. And it included lost time to injury. Turner ended his first pro season in low-A by way of comparison, and needs a two-level jump in 2015 to have a shot at a 2016 debut, and a 2-level jump next year is going to be severely hampered by the fact that he’s likely to be languishing in San Diego’s spring training facility until June, when he can officially be traded. He’s losing a half of year of development time most likely. So, late 2016 to me is a more realistic goal, if everything goes well.

Meanwhile, that leaves a gap in the shortstop coverage if Ian Desmond leaves. Here’s a thought; if Desmond leaves in FA after 2015, you put Espinosa back at his natural shortstop position, find a second baseman (Dan Uggla anyone? ) and then wait for Turner to arrive. If Turner can play short, so be it. If he can’t, you put in at 2nd. I like that plan.

Ladson says the Nats have “been quiet” on Turner since he’s not technically a Nationals player; makes sense; you wouldn’t want tampering charges.

Q: How is Desmond not locked up, or even the No. 1 priority? I understand Jordan Zimmermann is a staff ace, but shortstop is a prime position and every team desires one. Desmond is one of the best in baseball and can’t be replaced.

A: Because Desmond took a step back both offensively (from a 113 to a 103 OPS+) and defensively (UZR/150 from 4.4 to 0.1) in 2014 from the previous year. I’d be slightly hesitant too. I used to think that Elvis Andrus‘s contract was a fair comp for Desmond. But now it looks like the Andrus contract was actually a massive over-pay, and valuing Desmond may be more difficult than we thought.

When I think about roster construction, you go up “the spine” of the team. Catcher, Pitchers, Short and Center Field. Those are the key positions to lock up with quality players. So no arguments that Desmond and Shortstop in general are huge priorities. But now the problem becomes this: is Desmond’s 2014 decline a one-off or a concern? And, what is he worth? If you think Andrus is an overpay ($15M a year through 2022), and if Troy Tulowitzki is the best offensive shortstop in the game (at $20M/year for the next four years with annual injury issues), then where does Desmond fit in? Some sampling of shortstop contracts: J.J. Hardy is 3/yrs/$40M for AAV of about $14M/year. Jose Reyes makes $22M/year for the next three years, which seems rather high to me. Jimmy Rollins is on an $11M option for 2015. Jhonny Peralta is on a 4yr/$53M deal for an AAV of about $13M. So clearly the market is at least $15M/year for a quality shortstop.

Based on who the Nats have in the pipeline at short (past Turner … practically nobody) and based on who projects to be available in FA in 2016 (also practically nobody), yes I think Desmond is a priority. My guess is that the front office is juggling all sorts of stuff right now, and just hasn’t come to any conclusions. I’d be perfectly comfortable offering him 5 to 6 years at an AAV of $15M (6yrs/$90M) with a club option; that’s clearly not enough as the team has offered him *more* than that in the past apparently and he’s turned it down. He’s entering his age 29 season; that’d lock him up through his age 34 season … a gamble for a shortstop, but a good one for a franchise player who has been with the organization since he was 18. I would have postulated that perhaps Desmond (with his Florida ties and the heavy Yankees presence down there) wanted to slide into the vacated Derek Jeter spot … but the Yankees just acquired a long term SS in Didi Gregorius, so maybe Desmond’s agent and him are strategizing. Besides; Washington seems like a better positioned franchise right now than the Yankees (as hard as that is to write) for post-season positioning.

Ladson points out the Nats offered Desmond in excess of $100m and then cryptically says “lets see what happens in the next few weeks.”

Q: I noticed Rafael Furcal is a free agent. Might the Nats sign him as a veteran middle-infield stopgap until Turner and Wilmer Difo are ready?

A: Rafael Furcal?! Wow,that’s a heck of a pull. You mean the same Furcal who has played in a grand total of 9 major league games since 2012 thanks to injuries and will be 37 next season? He hasn’t played a full season of injury-free baseball since 2009. Why would we possibly consider this guy? No way; there’s younger, more reliable middle infield options out there. Difo, by the way, played in low-A last year. I don’t think we’re seeing him anytime soon. Mid 2017 maybe? Ladson says that Furcal *tore* his hamstring in Winter Ball; geeze. He also states the obvious; we’ll see lots of Dan Uggla and that we should trade for Ben Zobrist. Thanks for the scoops there, Bill.

Q: What are your predictions as to how the NL East will stack up in 2015, especially given personnel changes and improved health throughout the division?

A: Nats win the division with 90 wins. Marlins 2nd with like an 83-79 record. Mets in 3rd at about .500. Braves in 4th at about 75 wins. Phillies last place, with somewhere in the 68 range of wins. Ladson seems to go Nats-Marlins-Mets too.

Q: I’m frustrated by Desmond’s strikeouts. If he could make contact for 20 percent of his strikeouts, he would be all world. What can the Nats do to help him make more consistent contact — just patience at the plate for better pitch selection?

A: Welcome to modern baseball. Swing for the fences all the time; strikeouts be damned. Nobody remembers you struck out 180 times when you hit 20+ dingers from the short-stop position. Now … strike out 122 times in 119 games and hit .220? Then you’re in trouble, Mr. Espinosa. As far as the question goes; maybe you park Desmond further down the order, tell him he’s not a run producer any more and tell him to focus less on homers, more on solid contact. Maybe that helps. Maybe not; the Nats offense is seemingly always a man down, which means Desmond is always pushed into a 3-4-5 hole spot, where he’s looking to drive in runs. I expect similar numbers in 2015. Ladson reminds us that Desmond had the flu last year.

Sal Perez is the best value contract in the game right now. photo via si.com

Inspired by Steve Adams‘ MLBTR chat on 11/18/14, I thought this was a fascinating topic. What players have the best value contracts in the game right now?

For several years, the answer here was Evan Longoria, who signed a 6yr/$17.5M contract in 2008 and promptly put up three straight seasons north of 7.0 bWAR. We’re into the option years on that original deal, which are still pretty affordable, and Longoria did get a 9-figure extension, so he’s not entirely in this discussion any longer. Call him the “godfather” of ridiculously good value contracts.

Using the obvious websites (baseball-reference.com and Cots’ salary database now at BaseballProspectus.com), lets take a look at some candidates. Note; I refer to a “valuation” of $6M per win above replacement as a way to “value” production. There are some known limitations to equating salary to this figure, and there are others who estimate it even higher, but $6M per is still a decent estimate to use as a quick estimate of a player’s “monetary” production on the field.

Note: we are NOT including the litany of pre-arb players who are putting up huge seasons. This is mostly trying to focus on those players who have signed for affordable contracts but who are delivering huge value. Thus players like Josh Donaldson, Anthony Rendon, Kyle Seager, Corey Kluber and Starling Marte are not included here.

Candidate contracts: I’ve arranged these in my opinion of the order of value:

Sal Perez: 5 years/$7M (2012-16), plus 2017-19 club options worth just a *combined* $14.75M. This for a guy who has made the all-star team and won the catcher Gold Glove two years running. Wow.

Chris Sale: 5 years/$32.5M (2013-17), plus 2018-19 options of $12.5M and $13.5M. This for a guy who led the AL this year in ERA+ and has received significant Cy Young votes 3 years running. His bWAR in the last three seasons: 5.9, 6.9 and 6.6. That’s crazy.

Jose Altuve: 4 years/$12.5M (2014-17), plus 2018-19 options at $6M and $6.5M. Two-time all-star, led the AL in both hits and batting average in 2014. Just put up a 6.6 bWAR season … and the Astros got it for just $1.25M in salary.

Jonathan Lucroy: 5 years/$11M (2012-16), plus 2017 option at $5.25M. this late bloomer signed an incredibly affordable deal, then had a break out 2014 season where he posted a 6.7 bWAR, made the All-Star team, finished 4th in the MVP voting and should have won the gold glove as the best framing catcher in the game. His total salary for the remaining three years of his contract is just $12.25M.

Madison Bumgarner. Current contract: 5 years/$35M (2013-17), plus 2018-19 options at $12M each. Bumgarner was 4th in Cy Young voting this year with a 4 bWAR season but (as we all know) dominated the playoffs, single-handedly handing the Giants their 3rd World Series title in the last 5 seasons. A 4-war season is worth at least $24M on the open market these days, but he earned just $3.75M this year. His options can vest and increase with certain achievements, but even at their max $16M value he’s still a massive bargain.

Yasiel Puig: 7 years/$42M (2012-18). Everyone thought the Dodgers were crazy to commit $42M to an unknown; now it looks like a massive bargain. For $2M salaries the last two years he’s put up 4.9 and 5.4 bWAR seasons.

Julio Teheran: 6 years/$32.4M (2014-19). This contract gets expensive later, but in 2014 he was paid just $800k to put up a 4.0 win season. If Teheran continues to be the #2 pitcher he showed this year, the Braves have great value on their hands.

Jose Quintana: 5 years/$21M (2014-18). Thanks to the crummy team he toils for, Quintana’s exploits have gone unnoticed. But he’s now got a career 117 ERA+ and has reached 200 innings both of the last two seasons and is signed for a song going forward. Its no wonder analysts scoff when his name is mentioned in trade talks.

Michael Brantley: 4 years/$25M (2014-17), plus 2018 option of $11M). This is preliminary, but based on his 7 bWAR season in 2014 (for just a $1.5M salary), this could be a huge bargain. Is he a flash in the 2014 pan or is he for real? If he’s for real, the Indians have a fantastic value going forward.

Ben Zobrist: 4 years/$18M (2010-13), plus 2014-15 options of $7 and $7.5M. This was the poster child for years of affordable contracts (once Evan Longoria got his extension). He’s averaged 4.75 bWAR over the past four seasons while playing six or seven different positions for the Rays. Even in the final 2015 season at $7.5M, he’s projecting at 4 bWAR, still a significant under-value. Keith Law calls him “the best contract value” in MLB history; maybe he should be higher on this list.

Mike Trout: 6 years/$144.5M (2015-20). No, a $33.25M salary in 2020 isn’t really a bargain, but the Angels are still getting the best player in baseball for $1M in 2014 and $5.25M in 2015. Even if Trout declines to “just” a 6 bWAR player for the next 6 years … the Angels are still coming out ahead on the $6M/WAR evaluation technique.

John Lackey: 1yr/mlb minimum (2015). He had a quirk in his previous contract that vested a MLB-minimum year thanks to an injury a couple years ago, so the Cardinals get the benefit of a veteran innings-eating 100 ERA+ starter at the league minimum. Nothing to sneeze at, even if its just a one year contract. On the open market you have to think he’s worth $8-$10M/season.

Steve Pearce: 1 year/$850k (2014). This isn’t really a true candidate like the other players here, but Pearce’s story is worth noting. He was DFA’d and *released* in April and re-signed a couple days later, but still posted a 6 bWAR season for Baltimore this year. He’s arbitration eligible for 2015 but how far could his salary really rise after an 850k salary?

Jonathan Singleton: 5yrs/$10M plus 3 club options. He may not profile as being worth this contract now … but if he lives up anywhere close to expectations, those later option years at $2-$2.5M are going to look pretty darn good. No wonder the players union howled when he signed this deal.

Adam Jones: 4yrs/$62M is nothing to shake a stick at, even if his “gold glove” defense is rather suspect.

Jose Bautista: 5 years/$65M (2011-15), plus 2016 option of $14M. $14M for a guy who probably would have gotten 33% more had he been a FA two years ago.

How about the same analysis for the Nats? The clear best value players on the team are Anthony Rendon and Tanner Roark. Both Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister delivered pretty good WAR/pay value. Denard Span just gave us a 3.6 bWAR season for $6.5M in salary; a pretty good deal. But none of these contracts really contend with the above list.

By now, we’ve grown accustomed to it. Nats GM Mike Rizzo acquires yet another player with a questionable injury past, hoping to find a new market inefficiency and getting a better player in the long term than how the rest of the league valued the player in the short term. This topic came up last week as the Nats seemingly severed ties with Matthew Purke and we immediately began talking about the wasted bonus money … three days later he re-signed a minor league deal, but he’s still an integral part of this discussion.

This post attempts to go through all of Rizzo’s injury-risk player acquisitions (draft, trade or FA), to see how he’s doing in terms of these high risk acquisitions. I may have missed out on someone; please let me know if you think someone else merits discussion. I’m sure there’s deep-draft picks worth discussing in prior drafts that our readers may remember; please pipe up in the comments section. In each section they’re basically in reverse chronological order.

Draft

Erick Fedde, 1st round pick in 2014 (18th overall), RHP from UNLV, $2.5M bonus (over-slot, ~10th pick money). I reviewed this pick after it happened and maintain the same stance I had in June; I thought Fedde was over paid and over drafted, but (in the Nats defense) the combination of the picks right before us (which included one Brandon Finnegan, who was on the Royals post-season roster) and right after us probably sealed Fedde’s selection. Verdict: Obviously, it is far too early to tell how Fedde will turn out, so there is no judgement to pass here. Fedde had the Tommy John surgery in Mid May, so he won’t even throw his first pro pitch until mid next season.

Lucas Giolito, 1st round pick in 2012 (16th overall), RHP from Harvard-Westlake HS (CA), $2.9M bonus (well over-slot, equivalent to 7th overall pick slot). Giolito was rumored to be in the mix for 1-1 in 2012 before a “strain” in his pitching elbow caused him to miss most of his senior year. This “strain” turned out to really be a “partial tear,” but the Nats saw value in getting a potential 1st overall talent mid-first round. Giolito rehabbed, threw a few innings, then had TJ surgery on 8/31/12. Since, Giolito’s rehab went perfectly, throwing 40 innings in 2013 and another 100 in 2014. Despite his limited workload in 2014, he was named the Nats minor league pitcher of the year and has rocketed up prospect charts. He currently is the unquestioned #1 Nats minor league prospect and should feature as a top 10 prospect in all of baseball. Verdict: so far, so good. They say there’s “no such thing as a pitching prospect,” so the wheels could still come off the bus, but Giolito is trending up and the gamble is looking like it will pay off.

Kevin Dicharry, 24th round pick in 2012, RHP from Texas. Dicharry was good early in his college career but missed most of his college career with shoulder issues. His pro debut was good enough: a 2.84 ERA in 25 GCL innings in 2012. He started 2013 in Short-A, got hit hard in 3 outings, and was abruptly released to my surprise. Verdict: failure … but it’s kind of hard to say that a 24th round pick was a failure for not panning out, even if he was perfectly healthy.

Robert Orlan, 30th round pick in 2012, RHP from UNC. Orlan suffered an elbow injury late in the 2012 college season and was immediately placed on the 60-day DL by the team after they drafted him. Baseball Prospectus does not have any injury/surgery history, so I do not know what, if any procedures he had done in 2012. Orlan was decent for Auburn in 2013 but struggled in 2014 and couldn’t make the level jump to full-season ball. He’s already been relegated to the bullpen and may not be long for the org. Verdict: not looking good … but again, hard to really pass any harsh judgement on a 30th round pick. The fact that he has even lasted two pro years makes him a success already.

Anthony Rendon, 1st round pick in 2011 (6th overall), 3B from Rice. $6M bonus, well over-slot at the time. Rendon’s dropping out of the top 2-3 picks was a huge draft-day shock; we’re talking about a college player of the year who scouts had penciled in as the 2011 1-1 pick for nearly two years. But nagging ankle injuries in both his sophomore and junior year scared off the teams above Washington, who probably tripped over themselves running to the podium to take him. We know the rest of the story now; by mid 2013 he was a starter, and he posted a 6.5 bWAR season in 2014. Verdict: huge success so far.

Matthew Purke, 3rd round pick in 2011, LHP from TCU. Given a $4.15M MLB contract. The impetus for this post. Purke was a 1st round pick out of high school, then went 16-0 in his freshman year of college, earning 2nd team all American honors. Shoulder bursitis cost him a ton of starts his sophomore year, but the Nats gambled on him anyway. A healthy Purke would have easily been a top 10 pick in 2011, so the Nats got a potential top 10 talent in the 3rd round. Of course, we know how this story goes from here: Purke could never get going in 2012 and had to have shoulder surgery. Then he throws 90 decent innings in 2013 … only to drop off a cliff in 2014 before having TJ surgery. Now he’s out until at least June 2015. But, as we’ve seen this week, at least he’s not on the 40-man roster any more. But more time remains to be seen as to whether Rizzo’s $4M gamble can pay off in any capacity. Verdict: check back at the end of 2015, but not looking great.

Sammy Solis, 2nd round pick in 2010. A herniated disc in his back cost him the entire 2009 season, but he roared back with a solid 2010 to profile as the 2nd round pick he ended up being.

Nathan Karns, 12th round pick in 2009, RHP from Texas Tech. Karns was hurt when he got drafted, and didn’t throw a pitch in 2009 or 2010. He had to have shoulder surgery in June of 2010. He finally made his pro debut in 2011, and by 2012 was the Nats minor league pitcher of the year after going 11-4 with a 2.17 ERA across low-A and high-A. By mid 2013 he was making his MLB debut to provide cover for injured starters. Karns was flipped to Tampa Bay in the Jose Lobaton deal (also bringing back two decent prospects in Felipe Rivero and Drew Vettleson) and spent most of 2014 in Durham (where he took a step back, posting a 9-9 record with a 5.08 ERA in 27 AAA starts). Verdict: success for the team, given what he helped acquire, even if he’s struggling for Tampa Bay. (Thanks to commenter JohnC for reminding me to fully list his trade bounty).

(post-posting thanks to NationalsProspect’s Luke Erickson, who provided the Orlan injury link and reminded me of Solis’ back injury during college).

Trade Acquisitions

Denard Span, acquired from Minnesota on 11/29/12 for Alex Meyer. Span missed a huge chunk of the 2011 season after suffering a pretty bad concussion. He missed a month in 2012 after injuring his shoulder diving for a ball. So there was some legitimate injury concerns following Span around, though I don’t recall really discussing it at the time. I didn’t necessarily like the trade when it happened, but that was more because I thought Bryce Harper could be our center fielder for the next decade. Nonetheless, after struggling for stretches, Span inarguably was worth every cent of his exercised option for 2015, and though this wasn’t *that* big of an injury gamble, it has paid off. Verdict: Success.

Ryan Mattheus was acquired on 7/31/09 from the Rockies for Joe Beimel, just two weeks after he underwent Tommy John surgery. By mid 2011 he was an effective middle reliever for the team, and contributed a 1.3 bWAR season in 2012 as a good 6th/7th inning right hander. In 2013 he broke his pitching hand in a fit of pique and basically never recovered; he lost his bullpen spot to Aaron Barrett in 2014 and, being out of options and not really having that great a season in AAA, was released last month. Verdict: Success, considering what we gave up and considering that he may still be with the organization had he not punched a wall. (Thanks to commenter Wally for reminding me of the Mattheus acquisition).

Free Agent Signings

Dan Haren, 1yr $13M for the 2013 season. Haren had missed time in 2012 for a back issue, and had taken a huge uncharacteristic step backwards in performance from 2011. It was enough so that some thought (including me) the Nats were going to get a bounce-back season and a return to his #2 starter form. Uh, no. Haren at one point in the 2013 season was the *worst* starter statistically in the league (the team was just 4-11 in his first 15 starts, and he had a 6.15 ERA when he was summarily sent to the D/L with a soft tissue injury that even Haren himself didn’t know he had). He bounced back enough in the 2nd half to save his statistical season, but the damage was done. Verdict: failure of a signing, but to be fair I don’t believe Haren’s issues in 2013 were lingering back issues.

Chien-Ming Wang. Signed a combined 3 years of contracts worth $7M from 2010-2012. He had shoulder surgery in July of 2009. He missed the whole 2010 season, most of 2011 too. But he showed *just* enough in the tail end of 2011 to earn a $4M deal for 2012, where he promptly got hammered. To make matters worse, the guy whose rotation spot he took (Ross Detwiler) was usually the one coming in to relief him and pretty soon it was apparent the team had gone with the wrong horse. In the end, Wang gave the team 94 innings and 6 wins for his 3 guaranteed contracts. Verdict: well, a failure, but didn’t hurt the team as they raced to 98 wins in 2012. Just cost money.

Brad Lidge: he missed most of 2011, his final season in Philadelphia, and the Nats took him on a 1yr/$1M flier. After overcoming sports hernia surgery, Lidge gave up 12 hits and 11 walks in just 9 1/3 innings before being mercifully released, never to play again. Verdict: failure, but a good gamble.

Christian Garcia was picked up as a MLFA in mid 2011 after the Yankees gave up on him following his third elbow surgery in 5 years. He was un-hittable in our minor league system in 2012 (he gave up just 31 hits in 52 minor league innings that year), was called up and was effective enough to be added to the 2012 post-season roster. Unfortunately, Garcia’s injury luck did him no favors: he lost all of 2013 to a partial flexor tear in his arm, and never made it back in 2014, eventually being released in June of 2014. All that promise, just couldn’t stay healthy. Verdict: can’t possibly call a MLFA mid-season waiver claim a failure, no matter how little the team got out of him. Another good gamble.

Conclusion: actually Rizzo looks pretty good here. His draft pickups have mostly worked out; just Purke stands out as a possible loser. His only real injury-risk trade acquisition worked out. Haren and Wang were pretty high-visibility failures … but Lidge and Garcia were low-cost risks that had good upside if they worked out.

Rendon’s 2014 5th place MVP result is the highest ever for a Nat. Photo Nats Official via espn.com

While we wait for the Rule-5 results, I thought i’d throw a fun little post out there. Inspired by James Wagner‘s blog post last week (and subsequent newspaper filler two days later), I decided to dive into the subject of Nats award-receiving seasons. Anthony Rendon just finished 5th in NL MVP voting, the highest ranking ever for a Nats player. And three of our five starters just got Cy Young votes.

Using baseball-reference.com’s award pages as a source, here’s the history of every Washington Nationals player who has received any voting whatsoever in MVP, Cy Young or Rookie of the Year races.

MVP Races

year

Rank

Name

Tm

Vote Pts

1st Place

Share

WAR

2014

5

Anthony Rendon

WSN

155

0

37%

6.5

2014

18

Jayson Werth

WSN

9

0

2%

4

2014

19

Denard Span

WSN

8

0

2%

3.6

2013

13

Jayson Werth

WSN

20

0

5%

4.9

2012

6

Adam LaRoche

WSN

86

0

19%

4.1

2012

16

Ian Desmond

WSN

15

0

3%

3.4

2012

20

Gio Gonzalez

WSN

8

0

2%

4.7

2012

24

Ryan Zimmerman

WSN

7

0

2%

3.9

2012

30

Bryce Harper

WSN

2

0

0%

5.1

2011

19

Mike Morse

WSN

5

0

1%

3.4

2010

16

Ryan Zimmerman

WSN

18

0

4%

6.2

2010

21

Adam Dunn

WSN

9

0

2%

2.4

2009

25

Ryan Zimmerman

WSN

2

0

0%

7.3

2006

6

Alfonso Soriano

WSN

106

0

24%

6.1

2005

14

Chad Cordero

WSN

21

0

5%

2

There’s only been three top-10 MVP performances in franchise history: Rendon’s sneaky good 2014, Adam LaRoche‘s 6th place 2012 finish, and Alfonso Soriano‘s 40-40 season in 2006 (also a 6th place finish). But it is kind of indicative of the balance on this team that *eight* different players have received MVP votes over the course of the last three years, and seven of them seem likely to suit up for the 2015 team. No, a 17th place MVP finish isn’t really that impressive … but it is recognition that someone thought you were a top 10 player in the league that year (the MVP ballot goes 10 deep), and that’s worth recognizing.

Cy Young Races

year

Rank

Name

Tm

Vote Pts

1st Place

Share

WAR

W

L

SV

ERA

WHIP

2014

5

Jordan Zimmermann

WSN

25

0

12%

4.9

14

5

0

2.66

1.07

2014

8

Doug Fister

WSN

5

0

2%

4.5

16

6

0

2.41

1.08

2014

9

Stephen Strasburg

WSN

3

0

1%

3.5

14

11

0

3.14

1.12

2013

7

Jordan Zimmermann

WSN

21

0

10%

3.7

19

9

0

3.25

1.09

2012

3

Gio Gonzalez

WSN

93

1

42%

4.9

21

8

0

2.89

1.13

2005

5

Chad Cordero

WSN

1

0

1%

2

2

4

47

1.82

0.97

As we mostly know, Gio Gonzalez‘s 3rd place finish in 2012 (which included a first place vote amazingly) was our closest Cy Young candidate. Amazingly, the team didn’t have a pitcher even garner a Cy Young vote from 2006-2011. It was quite a dry stretch for hurlers.

Rookie of the Year Races

RoY

year

Rank

Name

Tm

Vote Pts

1st Place

Share

WAR

2012

1

Bryce Harper

WSN

112

16

70%

5.1

2011

4

Wilson Ramos

WSN

6

0

4%

1.8

2011

6

Danny Espinosa

WSN

3

0

2%

2.8

2006

2

Ryan Zimmerman

WSN

101

10

63%

2.9

Finally we have a winner! Zimmerman was a justified 2nd place in 2006 (he lost to Hanley Ramirez).

Not much analysis here, just recognition of the balance of talent we have on this team and how hard it is to win one of these awards.

Alex Gordon was one of the best defensive players in baseball, by any measure in 2014. photo 365rundown.com

Last year, I created a little spreadsheet upon the announcement of the Gold Glove winners, to see how they compared to various defensive metric leaders (2013 xls link here). And I threw in the “Fielding Bible” award winners, since that has now taken over as the “accepted” list of the year’s best defensive players, thanks to the Gold Gloves continuing to pick inexplicable players (this year’s repeat “I cannot believe he won” player again being Adam Jones). But, as we’ve seen, the Gold Gloves are getting better, and the days of picking someone like a statue-esque Derek Jeter and/or a nearly permanent DH in Rafael Palmeiro seem to now be over.

So, now that we’ve announced the 2014 Gold Glove winners, lets also look at the league leaders in various defensive metrics.

First, your 2014 Gold Glove winners: bold are also Fielding Bible winners, and red are the most egregiously bad selections.

Pos

AL GG Winner

NL GG Winner

C

Salvator Perez, CLE

Yadier Molina, STL

1B

Eric Hosmer, KC

Adrian Gonzalez, LAD

2B

Dustin Pedroia, BOS

DJ LeMahieu, COL

SS

J.J. Hardy, BAL

Andrelton Simmons, ATL

3B

Kyle Seager, SEA

Nolan Arenado, COL

LF

Alex Gordon, KC

Christian Yelich, MIA

CF

Adam Jones, BAL

Juan Lagares, NYM

RF

Nick Markakis, BAL

Jason Heyward, ATL

P

Dallas Keuchel, HOU

Zack Greinke, LAD

As with last year, the league still remains obsessed with Adam Jones despite his possessing negative defensive rankings across the board. Kyle Seager wasn’t “bad” but wasn’t nearly as deserving as Josh Donaldson. The only other real “bad” selection was Molina, not because he’s not a great defensive catcher (he is), but because he missed a ton of time and there were better options in the NL this year (namely, Jonathan Lucroy). Otherwise every Gold Glove winner listed here was deserving.

Here’s the 2014 Fielding Bible Awards, which (if you’re not aware) is a Bill James-driven website that uses a committee of national writers to select the winners (the site is here and you can read about their methodology). Bolded are also GG winners:

Pos

2014 Fielding Bible Winner

C

Jonathan Lucroy, MIL

1B

Adrian Gonzalez, LAD

2B

Dustin Pedroia, BOS (repeat)

SS

Andrelton Simmons, ATL (repeat)

3B

Josh Donaldson, OAK

LF

Alex Gordon, KC (repeat)

CF

Juan Lagares, NYM

RF

Jason Heyward, ATL

P

Dallas Keuchel, HOU

Util

Lorenzo Cain, KC

They selected Lucroy over Molina, and Donaldson over Seager. They’ve also added a 10th position for “Utility,” to recognize the excellent work of Lorenzo Cain playing multiple outfield positions.

Now, here’s the league leaders by various defensive stats. The links to get any of these leaderboards are in the Google xls. First: UZR/150.

Pos

AL UZR/150

NL UZR/150

C

1B

Albert Pujols, LAA (9.3)

Anthony Rizzo, CHC (8.2)

2B

Dustin Pedroia, BOS (20.4)

DJ LeMahieu, COL (11.0)

SS

J.J. Hardy, BAL (15.4)

Andrelton Simmons, ATL (18.4)

3B

Josh Donaldson, OAK (13.3)

Todd Frazier, CIN (8.9)

LF

Alex Gordon, KC (22.6)

Christian Yelich, MIA (14.1)

CF

Jackie Bradley JR, BOS (22.6)

Juan Lagares, NYM (25.3)

RF

Nori Aoki, KC (7.7)

Jason Heyward, ATL (20.5)

P

I like UZR as a measure and use it often. UZR/150 somewhat standardizes the scores across a 150-game average to represent the figure for a full-season for apples-to-apples comparisons. A good number of these leaders also earned Gold Gloves and/or Fielding Bible awards. Josh Donaldson was the clear AL 3B leader. Otherwise there’s a lot of similarities to the lists we’ve already seen. I was surprised as heck to see Albert Pujols on this leader board.

For a quick point of reference to the above scores, the BEST UZR/150 of any Nationals player this year was Anthony Rendon‘s uZR/150 of 4.6 while playing 3B. Span and LaRoche (our two GG finalists) both scored *negative* UZR/150 scores … perhaps an indictment of their nominations in general as being based on reputation and not actual on-field performance this year.

Next: DRS; Defensive Runs Saved. Some like this stat a lot; I struggle with it because single plays (like an outfielder reaching over the wall to take away a homer) result in huge swings in the numbers on plays that aren’t necessarily the hardest to make.

Pos

AL DRS

NL DRS

C

1B

Chris Davis, BAL (8)

Adrian Gonzalez, LAD (12)

2B

Ian Kinsler, DET (20)

DJ LeMahieu, COL (16)

SS

J.J. Hardy, BAL (10)

Andrelton Simmons, ATL (28)

3B

Josh Donaldson, OAK (20)

Nolan Arenado, COL (16)

LF

Alex Gordon, KC (27)

Christian Yelich, MIA (13)

CF

Leonys Martin, TEX (15)

Juan Lagares, NYM (28)

RF

Kole Calhoun, LAA (2)

Jason Heyward, ATL (32)

P

Dustin Pedroia had one of the highest UZR/150 ratings in the league … but he was not the top-rated 2nd baseman in the AL. We have our third different AL center fielder in three lists. Otherwise this is a pretty good list.

Next: FRAA: Fielding Runs Above Average, a Baseball Prospectus measure that attempts to remove the bias present in zone-based data and also tries to factor in the tendencies of the pitcher on the mound (ground-ball guy, fly-ball guy,

Pos

AL FRAA

NL FRAA

C

1B

Steve Pearce, BAL (7.7)

Adrian Gonzalez, LAD (11.4)

2B

Jason Kipnis, CLE (9.5)

Chase Utley, PHI (6.9)

SS

Alexei Ramierez, CWS (8.1)

Jean Segura, MIL (23.6)

3B

Kyle Seager, SEA (20.5)

Nolan Arenado, COL (14.3)

LF

Alex Gordon, KC (12.2)

Khris Davis, MIL (6.6)

CF

Jacoby Ellsbury, NYY (12.0)

Ender Inciarte, ARI (11.0)

RF

Kevin Kiermaier, TB (8.3)

Jason Heyward, ATL (26.4)

P

Dallas Keuchel, HOU (6.7)

Tyson Ross, SD (3.7)

Interestingly, Jean Segura shines highly here (the supposed “best defensive player in the league” Andrelton Simmons only scored a 10.0 in FRAA). And this stat really favors the play of some random players: I had no idea who Kevin Kiermaier or Ender Inciarte were before doing this post, nor did I know what position they played.

Adam Jones scored a -8.1 FRAA; ranking him 1187th out of 1212 players for 2014. I’m not kidding. That’s how bad a selection for the Gold Glove Jones was.

Last stat: Baseball Reference’s Total Zone Fielding

Pos

AL Total Zone Total Fielding

NL Total Zone Total Fielding

C

Salvator Perez, CLE (12)

Wilson Ramos, WAS (8)

1B

Steve Pearce, BAL (13)

Justin Morneau, COL (11)

2B

Jonathan Schoop, BAL (16)

Anthony Rendon, WAS (12)

SS

J.J. Hardy, BAL (14)

Jordy Mercer, PIT (21)

3B

Kyle Seager, SEA (23)

Chase Headley, SD/NYY (18)

LF

Alex Gordon, KC (25)

Khris Davis, MIL (13)

CF

Lorenzo Cain, KC (18)

Billy Hamilton, CIN (14)

RF

Kevin Kiermaier, TB (12)

Jason Heyward, ATL (30)

P

Check it out: our own Wilson Ramos is on this list as the “leader” for the NL. Which, no offense to Ramos, makes you question at least the catcher rankings for this stat. Rendon also factors in for his partial season at 2B. But overall, this seems like the least reliable defensive stat.

As mentioned above, both our GG finalists (LaRoche and Span) seem to have been nominated on reputation only; neither of them appeared near the top on any of these statistical measures (unlike last year, when Span at least was a leader in Total Zone)

Did I miss any good defensive metrics? Do you have one you like more or less than these? I know there’s other stats out there; I can update this analysis with more of them.

So, how did the Gold Gloves do this year in selecting the most deserving winners? Pretty good. Alex Gordon was the AL leader for left fielders in every stat. I think they picked the two correct short stops. Catchers are difficult to measure. They absolutely screwed up the AL Center fielder (though to be fair; there were four statistical measures presented and four different AL center field leaders. Excellent defensive players who jump around (Lorenzo Cain, Ben Zobrist) make the awards somewhat challenging in some cases.

I used to love answering the questions that MLB.com beat writer Bill Ladson would post. But Ladson hasn’t done such a column in months, and the other outlet for such a post (Tom Boswell) usually is populated with too many non-baseball questions to be worth addressing. So today WP beat reporter James Wagnertook a crack at a Q&A session and I thought it’d be fun to do a version of his Q& (my) A.

As with previous posts, I write my response before reading his and edit the questions for clarity/conciseness.

Q: What was the Nats’ final record against winning teams & how did it compare to the other playoff teams?

A: Wagner summarized the answer well; the Nats ended up 23-23 against winning teams. To show you how useless this stat is in predicting the playoffs, the team with the best record (the Orioles) was swept and the WS matchup features the Giants, who had a losing record against winning teams. Once again we learn that the post-season is about getting hot (or in the Nat’s case, disappearing) at the right time. Wagner did the same analysis.

Q: Will the Nats turn to Tyler Clippard as the 2015 closer?

A: Doubtful. Despite Drew Storen‘s second playoff meltdown, he’s likely the closer in 2015 on the strength of his excellent 2014 season. Tyler Clippard‘s of more use in generally higher-leverage 8th inning situations, and likely continues in that role. This has to be a bummer for Clippard, who enters his last arbitration argument without the benefit of the lucrative saves, but who is also just as likely to cash in when he hits free agency with a team looking for a reasonably priced closer. I’ll bet he can get a 3yr/$24M deal as someone’s closer. He is a fly-ball guy (not optimal as a 9th inning solution) but fly-ball pitchers definitely play well in pitcher parks. He’d make an excellent closer for most any team on the west coast. Wagner agrees.

Q: Why not keep both LaRoche and Zimmerman and platoon them at first base?

A: Because that’s an awful lot of payroll to dedicate to a platoon. LaRoche likely gets $15M/year, Zimmerman is set to earn $14M next year. Both are middle-of-the-order bats who need to play every day. Unfortunately we don’t have a DH, else you’d re-sign LaRoche immediately and they’d split time at 1B/DH like most every other DH in the AL. LaRoche is getting one last crack at free agency and could get another 2 year deal (rumors have him as a great fit in Milwaukee). I think sticking Zimmerman at 1B makes the most sense considering the description of his shoulder at this point (he used the phrase “bone on bone” to describe the state of his arm at this point). In fact, I think Zimmerman makes a great first baseman, immediately becomes a Gold Glove candidate, and (hopefully) stays healthy. Wagner makes the same points.

Q: How about Steven Souza as our 2B solution?

A: Souza started his pro career as a third baseman … and was moved to the outfield by the time he was 22. I’m guessing there’s a reason for that. I don’t see him coming back to the infield, either at 3b or 2B. He’s way too big to play second base effectively (he’s 6’4″ 225); if I was forced to play him in the infield, i’d suffer with him at 3B and stick Rendon back at second. But that’d be a waste of Rendon’s defensive talents at the hot corner; we’re much better off installing him at his natural position and finding another 2B alternative. None of this really talks about what the team *should* do with Souza; he’s more or less blocked for 2015 (as we’ve discussed to death) but has nothing left to prove in AAA. His best case scenario is an injury in the Nats 2015 outfield, which gives him playing time. Wagner points out Souza’s poor defensive record in his time at third.

Q: Should we care about the MASN outcome?

A: Uh, yes. The Nats could easily expand payroll with a decision and a guaranteed income stream, and we’d not be hearing about how they “have to” let some of their core players walk because they can’t afford them. The MASN issue has gone on way too long, and it seems like it is getting ready to affect both the Nats and the Oriole’s business operations soon. Wagner agrees.

Q: Do players and broadcasters read blogs and the press?

A: I hope not. We’re not professionals; we don’t have day in-day out access, intimate knowledge of the team’s comings and goings, nor insight into reasons that may be behind a player’s cold streak (does he have the flu? Is he nursing a slight sprain that nobody knows about?) I don’t think any good comes of professional players reading about themselves. If a player called out something I wrote derogatory i’d probably profusely apologize and retract it. Wagner says players sometimes read about themselves in the press … but that if they don’t, they’re likely to hear about it from family/friends/agents anyway.

Q: Which of the bench players (Frandsen, Hairston, Schierholz, McLouth) will be back and who will most likely leave?

A: Well, McLouth is still under contract for 2015, so he’ll at least start the year with the team (whether he finishes depends on whether he can regain some value). I’d guess that the other three are gone. None of the three hit particularly well for us, and all three are replaceable by internal promising candidates. Frandsen probably has the best chance of sticking around since he’ll be so cheap (he made $900k last year and is arb-eligible); he’ll be an interesting tender-deadline candidate.

Your 5-man bench needs a catcher (Lobaton), a guy who can play both 2b and SS (Espinosa, if he’s not the 2B starter), an outfielder who can cover center (McLouth), a utility guy who can play multiple positions (Frandsen fits here), and then a big bopper who can pinch hit. This last spot has been held by the likes of Tyler Moore, Chad Tracy, Matt Stairs, Jonny Gomes in the past few years. In 2015 it makes more sense to have Souza in this spot. Only problem is that it helps if this last bench spot is a lefty. We’ll see how the transactions play out this off-season.

Q: If you must chose between Zimmermann and Desmond, whom do you chose?

A: Desmond. Harder position to fill, less in the minor league pipeline, probably cheaper too thanks to Desmond’s sub-par (for him) 2014 season. Zimmermann seems likely to earn nearly $20M/year at this point, which is going to be too rich for this team, and there’s ready-made replacements in the upper minors (A.J. Cole, Blake Treinen, Taylor Jordan) ready to step in immediately after he departs. A better question might be this: do the Nats flip Zimmermann this off-season for something better than a compensation pick, admitting to themselves they won’t be able to extend him? It makes 2015 team weaker obviously, but also could ease the transition to the next “phase” of this team that starts in 2016-2017. Wagner agrees, but also mentions that Doug Fister plays into this decision too.

Q: If the Nats make it back to the postseason next year, can you envision them carrying a speed first guy like Rafael Batista or Wilmer Difo on their roster a la the Kansas City Royals?

A: No. Williams is old-school and made it pretty clear that he was managing his post-season team the same way he managed his regular-season team. For better or worse. The makeup of this team isn’t the same as the Royals, who have focused on speed, defense and bullpen strength to power their way through the post-season. The Nats are a starter-first, adequate but fragile offense second. Wagner isn’t as dismissive as I am.

Q: Why not find a FA third baseman and move Rendon to second?

A: A completely logical idea that we’ve talked to death. Definitely on the table. Wagner puts out some names that likely are going to be too expensive for the Nats to really consider.

Q: If the Nats offered Zimmermann a big extension and he declined it, could you see the Nats trading him?

A: If I were the GM, I’d consider it yeah. You take a step back in 2015 to set yourself up for 2016 and 2017 with the right deal. Maybe you flip Zimmermann for the 2b/3b player you need and a prospect or two further away, save some payroll and provide more continuity. My reading the tea leaves though? I don’t see this team doing it; they’ll “keep the band together” for one more run with this crew in 2015, and then make adjustments for 2016 depending on who they can sign and who walks. Wagner thinks its possible, but also cautions that the 2015 salary ($16.5M) and just one year of control will limit what the Nats get back. A very fair point.

So, if you told me that the Nats would lose the deciding NLDS game because Matt Williams chose to work the 7th inning with Matt Thornton, Aaron Barrett and then Rafael Soriano as the savior, I would have asked you, “was everyone else in the bullpen dead?”

Instead of going to war in a tie game with any of his three longest serving and most effective relievers (i.e., Craig Stammen, Tyler Clippard or Drew Storen) he went with a waiver claim, a rookie, and a deposed starter with an ERA after the all-star break north of 6.00.

I get bringing in Thornton to go against the first two lefties in the 7th; why the hell do you leave him in to face the Giant’s best hitter in Buster Posey?

When Posey inevitably singles to put guys on first and second with one out … clearly the key point in the game and the post-season … why do you bring in a frigging rookie instead of your #1 shut-down, high leverage reliever (Clippard)?

Was anyone really shocked when Barrett walked the next guy to load the bases? Was anyone then subsequently surprised when he overgripped, overcome by the moment and bounced a mid 90s fastball to the fence? Wilson Ramos looked like an amateur trying to “block” that pitch, stabbing at it backhanded like someone who’s never caught before, but whatever. The damage had already been done. If it wasn’t a wild pitch, it would have been a deep ground out, or a sac fly; the run expectancy of bases loaded with one out is more than 1.5. I won’t even go into the little league IBB wild pitch; the poor guy was clearly still thinking about the run he just gave up and the weight of the team’s season was on his shoulders.

For the record, you’re not going to win a ton of games where you get just four hits. Gio Gonzalez once again proved he wasn’t up to the task, and the Nats were lucky to get out of the 5th without giving up a run (also a bases-loaded, one-out jam that Tanner Roark mostly created on his own but also mostly got out of thanks to a ballsy 2-0 changeup to Pablo Sandoval).

No, the story of this game and this series can be summarized with the following list of lines for the 4-game series:

Leadoff hitter Denard Span: 2 for 19 with one walk.

#3 hitter Jayson Werth: 1 for 17

#4 hitter Adam LaRoche: 1 for 18

#5 hitter Ian Desmond: 3 for 18.

All of those hits? Singles. No power, no driving the ball from the heart of the order. Basically, the top half of the Nats lineup played four games of automatic outs. Hard to win like that. The bottom half of the lineup wasn’t much better: Cabrera was just 3 for 15 though with two clutch hits and Ramos was just 2 for 17 in the series and was a guaranteed weak ground-ball to shortstop every time.

You’re not going to win games when your 3-4-5 hitters get 5 combined hits in four games, none for extra bases and none driving in any runs. Did you know that Anthony Rendon was 9-17 with a walk and scored ZERO runs in the series? He was on base TEN times in four games and never scored. That’s a huge indictment of the middle of the Nats order.

The only hitters who showed up in this series were the two youngest regulars on the field; Rendon and Harper. With three homers and a double in four games (driving in four of the 9 total runs the team scored), Harper showed once again why it was folly that he was batting 6th. He drove in exactly four runs; had he been batting with Rendon on all the time, he may have batted in double that and we’re talking about a different series.

Its a bummer; the Nats offense picked a really crummy time to shut down, to make Ryan Vogelsong look like a staff ace. And they’re out in the divisional round for the 2nd time in three years despite being the #1 seed. Tim Hudson: you have your answer.

Goose Goslin Most Valuable PlayerPlayer most valuable to the success of the Washington Nationals

Rendon

Werth

LaRoche

Walter Johnson Starting Pitcher of the YearExcellent performance as a starting pitcher

Zimmermann

Fister

Roark

Frederick “Firpo” Marberry Relief Pitcher of the YearExcellent performance as a relief pitcher

Storen

Clippard

Soriano

Sam Rice Hitter of the YearExcellence in all-around hitting, situational hitting and baserunning

Rendon

Span

Werth

Frank Howard Slugger of the YearExcellence in power hitting

LaRoche

Desmond

Rendon

Joe Judge Defensive Player of the YearExcellence in fielding

Rendon

Harper

Span

Mickey Vernon Comeback Player of the YearPlayer who overcame biggest obstacle in the preceding season to contribute on the field

Storen

Roark

Barrett

Josh Gibson Humanitarian Player of the YearPlayer who meritoriously gave of himself to the community

Zimmerman

Desmond

Ramos

Minor League Player of the Year Minor league player most destined for big league success

Souza

Taylor

Giolito

Award by Award:

Team MVP: Have to go with Rendon; easily leads the team in WAR (by a nearly 3-win margin in bWAR over Werth/Span in second place). Werth continues to steadily hold on to his skills and contribute well into his mid 30s, while LaRoche put up a great contract year performance.

Starter of the Year: No argument here: Zimmermann was the best starter on the year. Fister‘s advanced stats don’t like him (his FIP is above 4.00) but he gets results. And Roark remains the best “found gold” the Nats have had in terms of prospect matriculation since the likes of Brad Peacock.

Reliever of the Year: Storen‘s great bounce back year has to put him in the lead, followed closely behind by Clippard. Still think the Soriano acquisition was worth it? I have him 3rd here just by virtue of his first half … and because the rest of the relievers were either long guys (Stammen, Detwiler), matchup loogies (Blevins, Thornton) or guys who spent more time in AAA than the majors (Barrett, Treinen).

Hitter of the Year: Rendon, Werth obvious top 3 guys, but I like what Span‘s done this year in terms of jacking his average up. Another classic contract year performance.

Slugger of the year: I just went with the team leaders in homers 1-2-3. You would have thought that Harper would be here by now.

Defender of the year: looking at the various advanced stats, I ended up with Rendon for his excellent work at 2B and 3B, then Harper (an excellent UZR/150 in left on the year). Span has a negative UZR/150 in center on the year, but passes the eye test. I’ll be curious to see how he ends up looking in the other defensive metrics. So he gets 3rd place essentially because there’s not another regular who has a positive UZR/150 on the team.

Comeback player: Storen makes the most sense … his comeback has been two years in the making. Roark isn’t really a comeback guy as much as he’s a “making the most of his chances guy.” Neither is Barrett honestly; but there’s not a good example of someone who was hurt or really came out of nowhere to make this team better.

Humanitarian: Honestly I only know of two guys on the Nats who actively do humanitarian/charity stuff and that’s Zimmerman and Desmond.

Minor League Player of the Year. As discussed in the comments of another post recently, for me “Minor League Player of the Year” is a completely different list than the subtitle offered of “Minor league player most destined for big league success.” POTY for me this year went Souza, Taylor and Giolito, while the top 3 prospects in our system probably are Giolito, Cole and Taylor.

Additional Questions

1) Of the players on the current active roster (or DL), which players do you think will not be part of the organization next season?

I’m guessing the team declines Soriano’s option, non-tenders Ohlendorf, Mattheus and Detwiler, and DFAs Blevins after his poor season.

Of the positional players, the team won’t exercise its options on LaRoche or Span, will have to end up DFA-ing Solano (and perhaps others; I havn’t done my options analysis yet) due to having no more options, and will let veteran FAs Frandsen, Hairston and Schierholz hit free agency. I think Cabrera is going to command too much money for the team to realistically consider him.

2) Will Ian Desmond or Jordan Zimmermann sign a contract extension before they hit the free agent market?

No. Both will go to FA. Desmond to the Yankees to be the next Derek Jeter, Zimmermann to highest bidder.

3) Who was the biggest pleasant surprise on this year’s team?

Rendon’s advancement and central role on the team.

4) Who was the biggest disappointment?

Zimmerman’s continued inability to stay healthy. A close second is Harper’s injury riddled season and struggles.

The title of my previous post was pretty simple: “Nats 2014 Draft == failure.” And it resulted in a rather spirited debate in the comments about the 2014 draft, the 2008 draft in hindsight, etc.

In that debate, I postulated my benchmarks for judging whether or not a team’s draft was “good” or not. Here were the six guidelines I stated for judgement, going round by round/section by section in the draft:

a. 1st rounder: future MLB above average regular to all-star

b. 2nd rounder: future MLB regular

c. 3rd-5th: expect at least one future MLB player in at least a backup/bullpen role

d. 6th-10th: hope for at least one player to reach the MLB level.

e. 11th-20th: hope for at least three players who matriculate to AA or higher

f. 20th and above: hope for one-two players to matriculate to AA or higher

Lets go back through all 10 Nats drafts and see whether these guidelines hold up. For each of the 6 requirements, we’ll give a quick “yes/no the condition was met” for each year. Critical to this analysis is the Nats DraftTracker XLS, milb.com and baseball-reference.com for searching for old players. Also useful is the Baseball America executive database, which populated the staff in charge of each draft.

Editors Note post-posting: I’ve added in the total known bonus amounts, per suggestion in the comments. Data taken from the Draft Tracker. Actual figures are likely higher because most bonus figures past the 10th round are unknown (but likely minimal). Also per good suggestion, I’m adding in the draft position for context, since its far easier to get a future all-star if picking in the top 5 versus later on.

d. Yes: 6th rounder Marco Estrada has turned into a decent starter (albeit for someone else after we released him)

e. Yes: 11th rounder John Lannan and 12th rounder Craig Stammen turned into MLBers, far above expectations here. 18th rounder Tim Pahuta had long ML career for us, playing 3 years at AA.

f. Yes: 33rd rounder Ryan Butcher was a 6yr MLFA who left the org but now has MLB experience with Atlanta. No other 20th+ round draftees made it out of A-ball, but Butcher’s MLB matriculation makes up for it.

2005: Success, inarguably. 6 guys matriculating to the majors is a winning draft, especially considering the lack of a 2nd or 3rd round pick, the ownership confusion, and the budget restrictions put on the team.

a. No: 1st rounder Chris Marrero looks like a 4-a guy at best and 1st rounder Colten Willems never made it above A-ball.

b. No: the team failed to sign 2nd rounder Sean Black and 2nd rounder Stephen Englund never made it out of low-A.

c. No: none of their 3rd-5th picks made the majors. The highest one of these guys got was 5th rounder Corey VanAllen, who did pitch in AAA after passing through the rule-5 draft and finished out his 6-years with the org. VanAllen is in Indy ball in 2014.

d. No: they didn’t even sign their 7th, 9th or 10th round picks. The closest they got to a MLBer here was 6th rounder Zech Zinicola, who played at AAA for quite a while, was rule-5 picked and returned, and now sits in Baltimore’s AA team.

e. Yes: 12th rounder Cole Kimball made it the majors briefly, while 17th rounder Erik Arnesen, 18th rounder Adam Carr and 13th rounder Hassan Pena all toiled in AAA for several years.

f. Yes, sort of. We’re all well aware of the success of 41st rounder Brad Peacock, but he was picked under the “draft-and-follow” system that no longer exists. So while yes it was a 41st round pick, in our current system Peacock wouldn’t have been picked at all and/or wouldn’t have signed but would have been picked the subsequent year based on his great first-college juco season. Of the rest of the 20th+ round picks, one guy had a couple months in AA (26th rounder Brett Logan) to serve as a backup catcher; he hit .102/.170/.122 in 20 games in 2007 and was released.

2006: Failure: 3 guys who have MLB appearances but near zero impact for this team. Peacock enabled the Nats to get Gio Gonzalez but I think we see now that Peacock wasn’t the driving prospect in that deal (now that Derek Norris has made an all-star team).

For as much as went right for the team in the 2005 draft, it went wrong in 2006. Was the lack of signing their 7th, 9th and 10th round picks evident of “fiscal restraint” demanded by the other 29 owners? Clearly to me, the focus on HS drafted personnel in this draft has Bowden’s hands all over it, and almost none of them panned out in the slightest.

a. No: The team went one-for-three on its first rounders: Michael Burgess got to AA in his fourth pro season but never further, was flipped for Tom Gorzelanny. Josh Smoker‘s failure has been well documented here. But Ross Detwiler, for all the complaining about his usage and role in this space, did make the majors and looked like a good 4th starter (in 2012). I still believe he could start in this league and is better than a long-man. However, the condition is that a first round pick turns into a successful regular, and this crop failed in all regards.

b. Yes. 2nd rounder Jordan Zimmermann is now a 2-time all-star and is probably the best 2nd round pick the organization has ever had. His successes make up for their other 2nd rounder Jake Smolinksi who has made his MLB debut but not until he became a 6-yr MLFA.

c. Yes. 4th rounder Derek Norris made the 2014 all-star team for Oakland. 3rd rounder Stephen Souza has debuted in the majors and looks quite promising (albeit blocked) for our AAA team. 5th rounder Brad Meyers toiled for us in AAA for years before being released this spring after a long injury recovery.

d. Yes: 10th round pick Patrick McCoy made it to AAA for us, signed with Detroit as a MLFA and debuted this year. We should note for the record though that 6th rounder Jack McGeary was paid as if he was a low-1st rounder and failed pretty spectacularly here.

e. Yes: 20th rounder Jeff Mandel was a long-serving org arm at AA and AAA. 11th rounder Bill Rhinehart was looking like a find, appearning on Nats system prospect lists for a while and getting to AAA before getting flipped for Jonny Gomes.

f. Yes: 28th rounder Boomer Whiting made it to Syracuse before getting released in 2011. 48th rounder (!) Kyle Gunderson was flipped for Logan Kensing in 2009 and made it to Miami/Florida’s AAA squad before getting released.

2007: Success: despite the 1st round failures and the McGeary disaster, the breadth of success in the other categories and the production of the remaining guys weighs out.

a. No: as is well documented, the Nats failed to sign 1st round pick Aaron Crow.

b. No/Inc: 2nd round pick Destin Hood has already passed through Rule-5 waivers once, but has found himself in 2014 and is hitting great for Syracuse (2014’s AAA line: .308/.353/.502). It does make one wonder if he’s worth adding to the 40-man once the season is over to keep him; he’s finishing his 7th pro year and is in line for minor league free agency.

c. Yes: 3rd rounder Danny Espinosa has his critics, but he’s at least a MLB backup or possibly more. 5th rounder Adrian Nieto has stuck with the White Sox after getting plucked in the Rule-5 draft last year and hasn’t been half bad.

d. Yes: 10th rounder Tommy Milone has shown his capabilities as a MLB starter. d. 6th-10th: hope for at least one player to reach the MLB level. 6th rounder Paul Demny remains in the system (on the D/L in Harrisburg) but doesn’t seem like he’ll go much higher at this point.

e. Yes: 16th rounder Tyler Moore has put in meaningful at-bats for the Nats for a few years now. And 19th rounder Steve Lombardozzi looks to be a solid utility/backup infielder in this league for years. Lastly I wonder if the team gave up on 15th rounder J.P. Ramirez too soon; he was paid like a 2nd round pick but was released prior to his MLFA period. He may have only made it to high-A, but his last season was somewhat decent.

f. No: as far as I can tell, nobody of note came in rounds 20 or above from this draft.

2008: Failure: How would you judge this draft? We failed to sign the first rounder, which for me is a huge negative. The second rounder may or may not ever debut in the majors, which is also for me a huge negative because of the huge prevalence of 1st and 2nd rounders on MLB rosters. But we got four (5 counting Nieto) other MLBers out of the rest of the draft, including some very deep-dive picks that you rarely find (Moore and Lombardozzi, aside from Peacock, are the two lowest round picks to ever make it to the majors for this team).

a. Yes: no arguing about either first round pick here: both Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen have pitched at all-star levels in their careers.

b. No: 2nd Rounder Jeff Kobernus may have made his MLB debut, but he’s nowhere close to being a “regular” in the majors right now and doens’t seem to be trending that way either.

c. No: 3rd round pick Trevor Holder was a gross over-draft (albeit with known reasons; the team committed an *awful* lot of money to the first two guys on this list) and was released in 2013. 4th rounder A.J. Morris looked quite promising for us, was flipped in the Gorzelanny deal, and this year is pitching effectively for Pittsburgh’s AAA squad after being taken in the minor league Rule-5 portion last off-season. And the Nats failed to sign their 5th rounder. So even if Morris pans out as a MLB-capable player, he’s doing it for someone else.

d. Yes: 9th round pick Taylor Jordan was effective for the team last year and may yet figure in the team’s plans despite his mysterious D/L trip right now. And 6th round pick Michael Taylor has rocketed up the prospect lists for this team, is crushing AA pitching right now, is on the team’s 40-man roster and may very well get a look as 2015’s starting center fielder.

e. Yes: 12th rounder Nathan Karns made the org look quite intelligent when he gave spot starts in 2013 after rocketing up the farm system after finally recovering from arm issues. I wonder if the success they had with Karns was the first impetus for Rizzo to take more gambles on high-end-but-injured arms. 13th rounder Patrick Lehman has bounced around as an org arm for years. 11th rounder Juston Bloxom played a couple years in AA before getting released this year. 16th rounder Sean Nicol is splitting time between AA and AAA this year. Finally, I wanted to note something I never knew before studying this: the Nats drafted Marcus Strohman in the 18th round out of HS; this is the same Strohman who went in the first round three years later to Toronto and who is currently holding down a rotation spot for the playoff-pushing Blue Jays. Wow. He’s listed as a SS on the draft-tracker but clearly is a MLB-calibre starter.

f. Yes: 22nd rounder Danny Rosenbaum has been Syracuse’s “ace” for three seasons now. And a slew of guys drafted in the 20s stuck around for years as middle relievers (Mitchell Clegg, Matt Swynenberg, Evan Bronson, Rob Wort, and Shane McCatty). You just can’t ask for more out of your picks in rounds 20-30.

2009: Success: I’ll take a couple of misses in the 2nd and 3rd rounds given the amount of talent they picked up in the middle and late rounds. Great draft. 6 guys who have debuted in the majors with at least another one likely coming soon.

Note: from 2010 onwards, most of the judgement calls are still “in progress.” We’ll use projections and “small sample sizes” to pass judgement. It is what it is. Feel free to criticize in the comments about using projections and national pundit scouting reports to make judgements.

a. Yes: 1st rounder Bryce Harper has turned into everything the hype suggested. Fun fact; when he went on an rehab assignment in Potomac, he was the 2nd youngest guy on the roster. Remember that when you criticize the guy for not being better than he already is: if he was “playing by the rules,” he’d be jsut finishing his junior year of college.

b. No/Inc: 2nd rounder Sammy Solis has been one injury issue after another. He missed all of 2012 with Tommy John, came back slowly in 2013, but now sits on the AA D/L with another “elbow” issue. He was protected on the 40-man roster last fall, but you have to wonder what’s to come of him. He’s finishing his 5th pro season and he’s got exactly one start above A-Ball.

c. Yes/Inc: 4th rounder A.J. Cole was paid like a late first rounder, and after some struggles he’s really come onto the scene this year. He was already really young for AA and “solved” it, and is now in AAA holding his own. The other guys in this category are less impressive: both Rick Hague and Jason Martinson are repeating AA and not really hitting well enough to push for promotions. This could be a side-effect of the huge amount of money committed to Harper and Cole.

d. Yes: 9th round pick Aaron Barrett went from unknown/unrecognized prospect to the Nats 40-man roster last fall to being lights-out middle reliever in the major league pen this year. As a 9th round college senior pick. 8th rounder Matthew Grace may be next; after toiling as a mediocre starter, he became a reliever in 2013 and has been lights out in AA and AAA this year. And he’s not just a LOOGY: 56 IP in 33 appearances and he’s given up just 6 ER in that time.

e. Yes: 15th round pick David Freitas, after getting traded to Oakland for Kurt Suzuki, got traded again to Baltimore and now is in AAA. 12th round pick Robbie Ray has made his MLB debut for Detroit after going over in the Doug Fister deal. 11th rounder Neil Holland toils in the Harrisburg pen admirably.

f. Yes: 23rd rounder Colin Bates and 26th rounder Christopher Manno both are in the Harrisburg pen. 22nd rounder Cameron Selik made it to AA before hitting his ceiling and being released earlier this year. And 32nd rounder Randolph Oduber is a starting OF in Potomac with decent splits and a shot of moving up.

2010: Success: It may have been a no-brainer to take Harper, and it may have been an example of the “checkbook” winning in their picks of Cole and Ray, but you have to hand it to this team; they bought two high-end prep guys out of their college and they’re both looking like huge successes. And they got a MLB servicable reliever out of a college senior sign who they paid just $35,000 in bonus money. Great work.

a. Yes: 1st rounder Anthony Rendon was on everyone’s “all star snub” lists this year, while their other 1st rounder Alex Meyer remains one of the top pitching prospects in the game and seems likely to debut later this year. Their supp-1st rounder Brian Goodwin remains on every pundit’s prospect lists even if he seemingly has been passed on the organizational “future starting Center-fielder” depth chart. There’s no chance the team leaves him exposed in the upcoming rule-5 draft, so he’ll have at least three more years to prove he belongs.

b. n/a: forfeited for Adam LaRoche signing.

c. No/Inc: Right now our 3rd through 5th picks are looking iffy; 4th rounder Matthew Purke was paid like an upper first rounder and has been a massive disappointment. Right now he’s recovering from Tommy John and faces an uncertain future. 4th rounder Kylin Turnbull has gotten lit up in high-A this year, his second crack at the league. 5th rounder Matt Skole may be the most promising of the bunch; he crushed 27 homers in his first season of full-season ball only to miss all of 2013 because of a freak injury. Can Skole continue developing and make the majors on a full-time basis? Can Purke at this point?

d. Yes: With the call-up of 6th rounder Taylor Hill earlier this year, this category is met. Which is good because the rest of the 6th-10th rounders from this year are struggling. Two are already released/retired, one is MIA and the lone remaining active player (Brian Dupra) is struggling as a starter/swing-man in AA. But Hill is a huge win; a college senior draftee on minimal bonus rocketing through the minors and forcing his way onto the 25-man roster.

e. Yes/Inc: It is far too early to fully judge this category, but it is looking promising despite the fact that the team failed to sign SIX of its ten picks beween the 11th and 20th round. 11th rounder Caleb Ramsey is already in AA. 16th rounder Deion Williams is on the mound (not a SS as in the Draft Tracker) and is struggling in short-A. 18th rounder Nick Lee is struggling in Potomac this year but has shown a huge arm and seems like he’ll eventually convert to loogy (especially considering his undersized stature); I can see Lee making it far as a matchup lefty reliever with swing-and-miss stuff. The lone failure at this point is 12th rounder Blake Monar, sort of inexplicably released after a decent 2012 season in Short-A.

f. Yes: 30th round pick Bryan Harper earned his way to Harrisburg. 45th round college senior pick Richie Mirowski also made it to AA, where he wasn’t half bad last year, though at the moment he’s back in Potomac. And there’s three other players drafted in the 20th or higher who are active on Potomac’s roster this year and who may get moved up. Decent production out of the bottom of this draft so far.

2011: Projected Success: As discussed before, I believe the selection of Rendon was a “no-brainer” based on a unique set of circumstances that occured on draft day, but credit the management team for having the stones to pick him when other GMs didn’t. I’m sure the Mariners (especially) would like a re-do on that draft (they picked 2nd overall, got soft-tossing local product Danny Hultzen, who was sidelined last year with all sorts of shoulder issues and is no sure bet to ever make it back. They rolled the dice with Purke and so far seem to be losing, but Purke was himself a 1-1 talent at one point (remember, he had his $4M+ deal with Texas pulled thanks to MLB-stewardship at the time) and was probably worth the risk. I’d like to see Skole reach the majors in some capacity before declaring this draft a full success.

Note: from here onwards, everything is a projection and is based on scouting the stat lines. I’m going to sound negative where others sound positive and vice versa. Hey, its better than writing nothing.

a. Yes/inc: 1st rounder Lucas Giolito (so far) has shown himself to be at full speed post TJ surgery and is mostly in the top 10-15 of every professional scouting pundit’s list for best prospect in the entirety of the minors. He’s got a #1 starter ceiling, a huge frame and three plus pitches. He’s projecting to be everything you’d hope for from an upper first rounder.

b. No/inc: It is hard to squint at 2nd rounder Tony Renda at this point and project him as a future “MLB regular.” Sure he’s hitting .297 in Potomac, and sure his numbers at the plate have not varied much in his three pro seasons. Unfortunately he’s vastly undersized and he has no power in a time where pro middle infielders are expected to provide serious pop. Maybe he can forge a career like Jamey Carroll or like a Jose Altuve, but the odds are against him. I don’t mean to discount the guy because he’s 5’8″ but we all know there’s a significant bias in the industry towards undersized guys. Heck, a pitcher is considered “short” if he isn’t 6’2″ these days.

c. No/inc: So far the guys picked 3rd-5th are also struggling. 3rd rounder Brett Mooneyham‘s struggles are well documented here. 4th rounder Brandon Miller continues to show great power but has missed much of this season with a hamstring injury (he’s on rehab in the GCL as we speak). Lastly 5th rounder Spencer Keiboom suffered a blown UCL that basically cost him the whole 2013 season. He’s got great numbers in low-A this year but is two years too old for the league. Keiboom’s talents more centered on his defense than his bat, so he may still push forward as a future backup catcher. But until he does, this category falls in the “no” side.

d. Maybe/inc: The leading hope for some MLB success out of our 6th-10th round picks right now resides in one of two middle relievers: 7th round pick Robert Benincasa or 9th round pick Derek Self. You never know; one of these guys could turn into the next Aaron Barrett. 8th round SS Stephen Perez made the all-star team this year in Potomac and could feature as a future utility infielder. The team has already released its 6th round pick Hayden Jennings, and their 10th rounder (local Rockville product Craig Manual) was a college senior catcher who is backing up other catchers in the system for the time being). He may continue to hang around but unless he gets a starting gig he’s going to get replaced by someone newer.

e. Yes/inc: 17th rounder Blake Schwartz has already made it to AA, where he struggled and he now sits back in Potomac (where he was great last year, go figure). 11th rounder Brian Rauh got a spot-start in AA last year but has bounced in and out of the Potomac rotation this year. 16th rounder Ronald Pena is working his way off injury but faces a long road to move up thanks to a lack of swing-and-miss stuff. The team has already released four of its 11th-20th round picks; the remaining out-field players (12th rounder Carlos Lopez and 19th rounder Bryan Lippincott) both seem to face long odds as college senior draftees still residing in the low minors to even make it up to AA at this point. To be fair, Lopez missed most of 2013 with an unknown injury, so we’ll give him a slight pass. Lippincott sits in XST right now.

f. No/inc: 33rd rounder Mike McQuillan has hung around and currently serves as a utility guy/bench player for Potomac. A couple of relievers remain on squads: 29th rounder Leonard Hollins is hurt but is on a full-season squad, and 30th rounder Robert Orlan was with Hagerstown to start the season but is back in Auburn. The rest of the 20th round and up guys features carnage; eight college senior draftees already released to go along with 10 unsigned (mostly high schoolers) picks in the later rounds. One unsigned pick looks interesting; all-american freshman UNC player Skye Bolt may be a big-time 2015 draft pick. But otherwise, I’m predicting that we dont’ get even a AA player out of the last 20 rounds of this draft at this point.

2012: Projected Failure: Frankly, this is looking like it may be a one player draft. At this point, I don’t think you can look at *any* other player in this draft and project even a bench/fringe 25-man roster guy besides Giolito. Now ask yourself: if Giolito fulfills expectations and becomes an “ace,” a top 15-20 arm in the majors while the rest of this draft basically becomes high-A and AA filler, does that change your opinion of the draft success/failure?

a. n/a: No 2013 first rounder thanks to the supurfluous signing of Rafael Soriano. As noted at the time, the Nats missed out on players like Sean Manaea, Ryan Stanek or Ian Clarkin, all of whom were available at the time of their lost 1st rounder. Manaea in particular has flourished, rising up prospect list charts and sporting a healthy K/9 rate in high-A this year. I’d like to call this in and among itself a failure (given my reservations about paying for saves in general), but have to admit that Soriano has been pretty durn good this year.

b. No/inc: 2nd rounder Jake Johansen thus far has not lived up to advance billing in his first year in full-season ball. He’s averaging just 4.5 innings per outing and sports a 5.00 ERA and less than a K/inning. I can understand the difficult adjustment to pro ball, but I don’t get how his vaunted velocity and size combination aren’t resulting in more swing-and-miss. He’s given no indication that he can avoid what scouts have been saying all along (that he’s destined for the bullpen), he’s way too wild and way too hittable.

c. Yes/inc: the Nats collection of 3rd rounder Drew Ward, 4th rounder Nick Pivetta and now especially 5th rounder Austin Voth are making this management team look very smart. All Voth has done since forcing his promotion to High-A is give up 10 hits and ONE earned run in 33 innings over five starts. That’s just ridiculous. And he’s doing it while maintaining a 36/5 K/BB ratio. There’s zero reason for him to still be in Potomac at this point. I don’t know what Voth’s ceiling is, but its getting pushed.

d. No/inc: Thanks to the new CBA’s rules, most 6th-10th rounders are throw-away/college senior picks these days. So it’ll be awfully hard to depend on one of them turning into a 25-man roster guy. The best bet out of this draft will be having either 6th rounder Cody Gunter or 7th rounder James Yezzo eventually matriculating to the majors. The other guys in this category were 15k bonus college seniors, one of whom (9th rounder Jake Joyce has *already* been released). Do we think either Gunter or Yezzo projects as a major leaguer? Not right now: Gunter’s struggling in short-A for the 2nd year in a row and Yezzo is an undersized 1B showing little power.

e. Maybe/inc: Right now the pickings for the guys taken 11th-20th look pretty slim too. Three were senior signs who have already been released and we failed to sign our 16th round pick Willie Allen (though can’t fault the Nats for that: doing research on him for last year’s draft review showed all sorts of inconsistencies with him, including whether he’s even still playing baseball in college). But 11th rounder John Simms is looking like a great find; he’s already in the AA rotation and holding his own (though you could argue it was out of need, not performance). Among those left, 10th rounder Brandon Middleton and 15th rounder Isaac Ballou are starting and playing well in Hagerstown, 12th rounder Andrew Cooper is strugging in low-A, 13th rounder John Costa has yet to debut for the team thanks to TJ surgery, and 17th rounder Geoffrey Perrott was a senior catcher who got a grand total of 13 at-bats in 2013 and has remained in XST so far thisyear, perhaps to serve as a bullpen catcher for others remaining in Viera and perhaps because he was hurt most of last year and may still be recovering. If Simms continues to rise and we get a couple more longer-lasting prospects out of this crew, we’ll convert this to a success.

f. Maybe/Inc: The Nats picked seven college seniors in the 21st round or above and so far they’re all with Hagerstown. Middle infielders Cody Dent (22nd rounder) and Willie Medina (31st rounder) both hit in the .220s last year, are hitting in the .220s (or worse) this year, and seem like they may not last the season. However the pitchers in this bunch are looking better and better. 28th rounder Joey Webb has a 2.53 ERA, 30th rounder Ryan Ullmann has as 3.10 ERA and got a high-A up-and-back call-up, and 34th rounder Jake Walsh dominated Low-A and earned a call-up to Potomac. Only 29th rounder Michael Sylvestri seems to be in trouble among these senior signs; after struggling in Short-A last year, he gave up a ton of runs in 6 mid-relief outings and is currently in re-assignment purgatory. What of the non senior-signs? 24th round pick Matthew Derosier is struggling in short-A and 23rd round outfielder Garrett Gordon seems like he’s a bench player in Auburn. But a revelation may be 25th round prep draft pick Travis Ott. He holds a 2.10 ERA through 6 starts in Auburn despite being quite young for the league. So, the trend seems good that we’ll get value out of the bottom part of this draft.

2013: Projected Failure: Sorry to say; no first rounder, a middle reliever out of your 2nd rounder, perhaps a 5th starter out of the 3-5 rounds, and some org filler from the bottom of the draft? How many players from this draft do you realistically project to make the majors?

a. Maybe/inc: 1st rounder Erick Fedde may project as a MLB rotation guy, but he’s not projecting as an ace level arm. So if he comes back from surgery 100%, if he keeps moving up the chain, if he makes the majors and if he has an impact we’ll give this a yes. Lots of ifs.

b. n/a: we failed to sign our 2nd rounder Andrew Suarez.

c. Maybe/inc: The hopes here fall on 3rd rounder Jakson Reetz and 4th rounder Robbie Dickey, since our 5th rounder was a senior lefty out of non-baseball powerhouse Duke. How do we dream on Reetz and Dickey? Maybe Reetz turns into our next Derek Norris while Dickey turns into the next Austin Voth. Lets hope so, because both so far have had rather inauspicious starts in the GCL (Reetz batting .220 and Dickey posting an ERA in the 12s). To be fair Reetz is a kid and Dickey isn’t much older, so we have a long way to go before passing true judgement.

d. No/inc: We failed to sign the 8th round pick Austin Byler (and from reading the tea leaves, it didn’t seem like we were ever even close). Our 7th, 8th and 10th round picks were low-bonus college seniors with little hope of advancing. So this category falls squarely on the shoulders of 6th rounder Austin Williams, who looks ok so far in Short-A.

e. Far too Early: most of these guys who did sign are 15 games into short seasons.

f. Far too Early: most of these guys who did sign are 15 games into short seasons.

2014: Not promising: An injured first rounder, no 2nd rounder, really just a handful of non senior-signs elsewhere in the draft. As I opined in the previous post discussion, I just don’t like the looks of this class.

So. 5200 words later, I think I actually like my guidelines. I think though that the new CBA forces teams into making a bunch of “throw-away” picks in the 6th-10th rounds, so my criteria needs to be adjusted downward for that category in the last few years. Otherwise I think it holds.

What say you?

Editor’s Post-posting thoughts. Based on the analysis above, the franchise has 5 successes and 5 failures (or projected failures) in ten drafts. After up and down drafts the first four years, we had three straight successes in 2009-2011, but now I feel like we’ve had three successive failures from 2012 onwards. Here’s a sobering thought about those successes and failures: lets talk about bonus money spent.

In the 5 drafts I call successes, the team spent (chronologically): $3,990,500, $7,619,300, $18,806,000, $11,413,200 and $11,325,000 in bonus money.

Era 1 may be just the way it used to go; sometimes you’d get wins in the draft, other times you’d strike out. Era 2 was the glory years of Nats drafting, though the cynic may point out that picking three consensus 1-1 talents and spending 8 figures in bonus money wasn’t that hard. Era 3 is more troubling: why has this management team not done better in the CBA/limited bonus era?